Jeffrey
Newmark

Panelist

Biography

Dr. Newmark earned his PhD in early modern Japanese intellectual history at the University of British Columbia in 2009 and soon thereafter came to the University of Winnipeg to teach Japanese culture and language with the Department of Religious Studies (now renamed the Department of Religion and Culture). In 2011, he helped propose and create the East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC) Program, which he currently serves as coordinator. Perhaps the most popular feature of EALC is its summer field schools in East Asia, and Dr. Newmark is preparing for his third summer abroad program at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. The field schools fulfill the study abroad component for the Program but more importantly for the University offer a unique opportunity for students to engage in experiential learning.

Dr. Newmark’s primary area of research is the intellectual history of early modern Japan (1603-1868). More specifically, he has investigated the emergence and development of the public sphere in pockets of remonstration throughout the Osaka area. His most recent publication, a volume he co-edited called Religion, Culture, and the Public Sphere in China and Japan, offers a working model of the public sphere in which the primary contributors in traditional East Asia largely were found on the periphery of society. He is currently working on a monograph of an intellectual firebrand, Ōshio Heihachirō (1793-1837), whose 1837 riot destroyed nearly one-fifth of Osaka.